The next installment of our Presidential Leadership Series features Peggy McFadden, CRNA, BS, who actually served two terms as the AANA president. Join us as we look back on her impressive career and learn what challenges were facing the AANA in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.
Click the timestamps below to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
On This Episode:
If it takes a special person to lead the AANA, what does it say about someone who leads the organization on two separate occassions? Only two people in the history of our profession hold that distinction and Peggy McFadden, CRNA, BS, is one of them.
She served as AANA president in 1986-87 and again in 1992-93 and helped navigate the organization through some signficant challenges and issues facing CRNAs. Now we want to learn more about her story and let her reflect on everything she experienced during those two terms. As you’ll hear, the list of issues is significant and it’s incredible to hear her perspective on all of these accomplishments.
We’re excited to have her on the podcast and even more proud to feature her in our Courage to Lead Series. As she points out during the show, it’s important for younger CRNAs to go back to listen and learn about how we’ve gotten to this point. Things might seem very smooth and simple today, but it hasn’t always been that way.
So let’s get into this episode and learn more about McFadden’s career. Here are some of the other topics we’ll cover on the show:
- How she became a CRNA
- The difficulty of finding a new Executive Director
- Direct Reimbursment
- Dealing with shortages in CRNA manpower
- Building and managing relationships with other organizations
- How Professional Liability Insurance was started
- What made her come back for a second term
- Single anesthesia payment
- The biggest lessons she’s learned
- She would have loved to run for public office
Check it out the interview at the top of the page and use the timestamps to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
3:17 – Background on Peggy’s life and career
5:25 – Challenges of the first term
16:10 – Replacing the Executive Director
19:00 – Medicare reimbursement
23:58 – Back for a second term
27:07 – Highlights of the second term
33:56 – What would she do differently?
36:29 – Her message to young CRNAs
39:58 – Running for public office
41:40 – Her hobbies
44:25 – Final thoughts
“Anesthesia has really been good to me. It really gave me a good life. I met a lot of great people and got to travel the world. As we’d say in the horse business, it’s been a great ride..”
-Former AANA president Peggy McFadden, CRNA, BS
